Some interesting things to read and listen to …

Another of our (irregular) round-ups of interesting articles and audio on historical and archaeological subjects:

An article on the Irish Georgian Society’s website caught our eye, as it highlights some of the historic buildings in the Cork town of Youghal. ‘From Warden’s House to Myrtle Grove’ was originally published in 2017 and its author is Peter Murray, who spoke at our 2018 Festival.

BBC Radio 4’s Today programme has been featuring poems read by BBC correspondents and others. Here is Fergal Keane – who we are delighted will be at our 2020 Festival – reading from the Benedictus: Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue.

The Irish Story website is always worth a visit and is regularly updated (or you can sign up to their newsletter) – fascinating articles recently on General Henry Tudor by Sean William Gannon and Epidemics in Ireland by John Dorney. John is the editor of the Irish Story and spoke at last year’s Festival.

The Discovery Programme is a government-funded body that conducts advanced research in Irish archaeology and related disciplines, often using new technologies. They have published a series of short articles on some of their recent work called A Research Miscellany, which includes many intriguing projects. The piece on the aerial photographer Leo Swan is particularly interesting.

Dr Connie Kelleher, another Festival contributor, has just published her book The Alliance of Pirates: Ireland and Atlantic piracy in the early 17th century (Cork University Press) which we can highly recommend.

And finally, two articles that are not about history but both very enjoyable – Frank McNally in the Irish Times on bookshelves and Festival contributor Ronan McGreevy in the same paper on star-gazing during lockdown.